Zara’s Flight by Andrew Broderick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Those of you that are afraid of independently published books, or authors’ freshman efforts for that matter, may rest easy. Zara’s Flight is a cut above most of its contemporaries. The story is concise, maintains a good pace throughout, and contains very little that is extraneous. While it isn’t exactly filled with unpredictable surprises and plot twists, it does to a good job of pacing (particularly in the second half), and within the confines of near-future science fiction, is a solid story with just enough of an epic scope to pique your interest. The world Broderick has created is familiar and seems plausible enough. Technology is explained concisely and adequately, never going anywhere near the overly-abstruse explanations and extensive histories that plague so much modern science fiction — we know merely that it exists, what it can do, and what its rules are. Dialog largely drives the exposition, which I particularly liked, as it kept the story moving and was solidly written for the most part, only slipping up in a couple of places. For me, the only real weakness is the characters. Only the two main characters are fleshed out with any detail, and even then their motivations are rather simplistic, and their actions woefully predictable. I certainly would like to have gotten to know most of the secondary characters better – who hinted at interesting backstories and personalities, but didn’t stick around long enough to serve any purpose other than the utilitarian. (We need a pilot? Here’s a pilot. We need an engineer? Here’s an engineer.) Finally, the story’s lone antagonist (and only real source of any sort of dramatic conflict) is just a twisty mustache away from being over the top camp. In all, however, Zara’s flight is a delightful, imaginative adventure in the vein of early Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov that can easily be read in one sitting. I, for one, will certainly be around for the sequel.
